Automatic Personality Assessment through Movement Analysis.

Obtaining accurate and objective assessments of an individual's personality is vital in many areas including education, medicine, sports and management. Currently, most personality assessments are conducted using scales and questionnaires. Unfortunately, it has been observed that both scales and questionnaires present various drawbacks. Their limitations include the lack of veracity in the answers, limitations in the number of times they can be administered, or cultural biases. To solve these problems, several articles have been published in recent years proposing the use of movements that participants make during their evaluation as personality predictors. In this work, a multiple linear regression model was developed to assess the examinee's personality based on their movements. Movements were captured with the low-cost Microsoft Kinect camera, which facilitates its acceptance and implementation. To evaluate the performance of the proposed system, a pilot study was conducted aimed at assessing the personality traits defined by the Big-Five Personality Model. It was observed that the traits that best fit the model are Extroversion and Conscientiousness. In addition, several patterns that characterize the five personality traits were identified. These results show that it is feasible to assess an individual's personality through his or her movements and open up pathways for several research.

Gamifying App-Based Low-Intensity Psychological Interventions to Prevent Sports Injuries in Young Athletes: A Review and Some Guidelines.

Sports injuries have become a real health concern. Particularly noticeable is the increasing number of severe sports injuries among young people. Sports injury (SI) is a multifactorial event where many internal and external, proximal and remote factors play a role in a recursive way, including physical and psychological variables. Accordingly, many voices expressing the need of tackling that and several prevention programs have arisen. Nevertheless, different barriers and limitations prevent a wide extension of well-controlled programs, closely monitored by highly specialized professionals in ordinary sports grass-root organizations. These have helped flourishing different low intensity (LI)-interventions and e-Health apps focusing on both physical warmup, training and fitness, and mental skills aimed at reducing athlete's vulnerability to SIs. This kind of intervention usually uses self-administered techniques and/or non-specialized staff that can effectively monitoring the program. In fact, LI-interventions have shown to be effective coping with different health and psychological issues. However, these interventions face an important challenge: the lack of engagement people usually show. The current paper proposes how gamification can contribute to the engagement to such interventions. Based on the mechanics-dynamics-aesthetics framework to analyze game design, the paper suggests a set of guidelines app- and web-LI interventions aimed at preventing SIs should include to foster motivation and reduce attrition.

PSIXPORT: Mobile App for Ecological Momentary Assessment of Psychological Dimensions in Sport Injury.

Retrospective self-reports have been commonly used to assess psychological variables such as feelings, thoughts, or emotions. Nevertheless, this method presents serious limitations to gather accurate information about variables that change over time. The Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) approach has been used to deal with some of the limitations these retrospective assessment methods present, and for gathering real-time information about dynamic psychological variables, such as feelings, thoughts, or behaviors. In the sports injury rehabilitation context, athletes' thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and pain perceptions during the rehabilitation process can influence the outcomes of this process. These responses change over different stages of the rehabilitation and taking them into account can help therapists to adapt the rehabilitation process and increasing their effectiveness. With this aim, an EMA mobile app (PSIXPORT) was designed to gather real-time information about severely injured athletes' cognitive appraisals, emotional responses, behaviors, and pain perceptions during their rehabilitation process. The goals of this study were to evaluate Psixport's ability to gather real-time information about injured athletes' psychological responses during the rehabilitation, to test the users' perceived usability of Psixport, and to compare the reliability and differences between real-time data gathered with Psixport and the data gathered through the one-time retrospective method. Twenty-eight severely injured athletes (10 men and 18 women) were assessed using Psixport, a retrospective questionnaire, and the uMARS usability test. Results showed that Psixport can be considered as a good tool to gather information about injured athletes' cognitive appraisals, emotional responses, behaviors, and pain perceptions. Moreover, multiple data assessments gathered with the app showed to be more accurate information about injured athletes' psychological responses than one-time retrospective reports.

Understanding the dimensions of sport-injury related growth: A DELPHI method approach.

Despite the multitude of adverse physical and psychosocial consequences of sports injury, evidence also highlights the potential for positive benefits in the injury aftermath. The purpose of this study is to address this gap by exploring the dimensions of personal growth following a severe sports injury. A 3-rounds e-Delphi method was utilized to develop a consensual understanding of the dimensions of sport-injury related growth. A panel of 24 psychology of sport injury experts participated in the process. The final list of items obtained was subjected to conventional content analysis to identify general themes. The process led to the development of a 5-dimension model capable of describing athletes' experiences of personal growth following a severe sports-related injury: personal strength, improved social life, health benefits, sport benefits, and social support and recognition. The domains of sport-injury related growth identified here are consistent with growth-domains identified in previous personal growth literature. However, they also highlight the importance of contextualizing the experience of growth. We have captured key elements of sport-injury related growth, domains that can be used as the basis for further psychometric testing and for further interventions to increase adjustment and well-being during the rehabilitation process.

Athletes' Psychological Adaptation to Confinement Due to COVID-19: A Longitudinal Study.

Studies of individuals under conditions of confinement or severe social and physical restrictions have consistently shown deleterious mental health effects but also high levels of adaptability when dealing with such conditions. Considering the role of physical activity and sport in psychological adaptation, this paper describes a longitudinal study to explore to what extent the imposed restrictions due to the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 may have affected athletes' mental health outcomes and how far the process of adaptation to confinement conditions is differentially affected depending on whether the sports activity was practiced individually or in a group, and outdoors, indoors, or both. Two hundred and seventy-four athletes were assessed over 7 weeks using the GHQ-28 and an ad hoc survey exploring the practice of physical activity. A mixed-model fixed effects ANCOVA was used to analyze the effects of time, place, and company in which the sport was practiced, with an index of the amount of physical activity expended as a covariate. Results show a significant effect of time in three out of four of the GHQ-28 subscales, in all cases showing a consistent adaptation to conditions over time. Results also show that playing sport indoors, outdoors, or both, and practicing alone vs. with others differentially affect the somatic symptoms exhibited during confinement: Athletes who practiced sport with others showed higher levels of somatic symptoms at the beginning of the set of data but a quicker rate of adaptation. Differences arising from practicing sport alone or with others were more pronounced in the case of indoor sports, which could be related to the fact that physical activity that can be practiced during confinement is more similar to that practiced indoors alone. Implications relating to what sport psychologists and other health professionals may offer to athletes in stressful situations are discussed.

Psychological Profiling of Triathlon and Road Cycling Athletes.

Psychological characteristics of athletes play a key role in sport performance and may moderate and mediate the influence of technical, tactical, and physical abilities athletes show. Different authors have emphasized the special attention such psychological characteristics should receive considering the extent they can influence athletes' behavior either in training or in competition. This paper is aimed at describing the psychological profiles of two cycling sports: triathlon and road cycling. One hundred and twenty-nine male and female professional and amateur cycling athletes (35.74 years old average age ±12.79; 14.94 average number of years practicing cycling ±11.20) were assessed on different psychological characteristics. For that purpose, the Psychological Characteristics related to the Sport Performance (CPRD) Questionnaire and the Psychological Skills Inventory for Sports (PSIS) was used. Results showed significant differences among triathlon and road cyclists (Stress control = t116 =-3.711, p = 0.000, d = 0.48 ; Influence of Performance Evaluation = t115 =-3-115, p = 0.002, d = 0.49; Motivation = t124 =-5.520, p = 0.000, d = 0.82; Mental Skills = t119 =-4.985, p = 0.000, d = 1.02). There were no significant differences between men and women though there were differences among pros and amateur athletes. Triathlon professional, compared to amateurs, showed higher scores in all the psychological dimensions assessed (Stress control = t85 = 3.005, p = 0.003, d = 1.07; Influence of Performance Evaluation = t83 = 2.858, p = 0.005, 0.77; Motivation = t91 = 2.721, p = 0.008, d = 0.26; Mental Skills = t87 = 2.556, p = 0.012, d = 0.77). The results of this descriptive study contribute to establishing a model of optimal psychological profiling applied to the different cycling groups that can be used by sport psychologist, trainers, and coaches in order to promote peak performance of these athletes.

A Bayesian Approach to Sport Injuries Likelihood: Does Player's Self-Efficacy and Environmental Factors Plays the Main Role?

The psychological factors of sports injuries constitute a growing field of study, even from the point of view of the prediction of their occurrence. Most of them, however, do not take into account the likelihood of the injuries' occurrence and the weight and role of the psychological variables on it. We conducted a study building up a Bayesian Network on a big sample of athletes, trying to assess these probabilistic links among several relevant psychological variables and the injuries' occurrence. The sample was constituted by 297 athletes (239 males, 58 females) from a wide range of sports: track and field; judo; fencing; karate; boxing; swimming; kayaking; artistic rollerskating, and team sports as football, basketball, and handball (Mean age: 25.10 ±-3.87; range: 21-38 years). Several psychological variables, such as anxiety, social support, and self-efficacy were studied. Also, we recorded the history of injuries as well the body mass index and personal epidemiological data. The overall picture of the generated graph and Bayesian Network and its analysis - including the use of hypothetical data by means of several instantiations - includes the nuclear role of the Self-Efficacy regarding the injuries' occurrence likelihood; the decreasing impact of the competitive anxiety previous to the injury; the probabilistic independence of the players' risk behaviors, and the relevance of the environmental clues such the use of coping strategies and social support in order to build up a good level of Self-Efficacy after the occurrence of an injury. All these data are relevant when designing both preventive and recovery interventions from the multidisciplinary as well as from the psychological point of view.

Effectiveness of a stress management pilot program aimed at reducing the incidence of sports injuries in young football (soccer) players.

OBJECTIVES: Several attempts to reduce the incidence of sport injuries using psychosocial interventions produced fruitful, although inconclusive results. This paper presents the effectiveness and implementation issues of a pilot 3-month stress-management and muscle relaxation program aimed at reducing sport injury incidence. DESIGN: Pre-post treatment-non treatment group comparison. PROGRAM ADMINISTRATION: The program was administered by a trained psychologist on a once-a-week, 1-h session basis. PARTICIPANTS: Seventy-four male soccer players from four National Youth league teams voluntarily participated. Teams were randomly assigned to either treatment/non-treatment group. MEASURES: Injury protocol, Self-monitoring cards, Athletes' satisfaction and commitment survey, Coaches' interview. RESULTS: Group main effect and Time-Group interaction effect were both statistically significant, F(1,60) = 8.30, p = 0.005, η2p = 0.121, with the average number of injuries larger in the post-treatment phase of non-treatment group (p = 0.005, η2p = 0.077). There was a significant decrease in the average number of injuries for the intervention group before and after implementing the program (p < 0.001, η2p = 0.309). CONCLUSIONS: A controlled implementation of a psychosocial program was effective in reducing youth soccer sport injuries, with a high level of satisfaction and commitment from the athletes, as well as high acceptance from the coaches.

Are we more consistent when talking about ourselves than when behaving? Consistency differences through a questionnaire and an objective task.

The present paper aimed to examine questionnaire response patterns and objective task-based test behavioral patterns in order to analyze the differences people show in consistency. It is hypothesized that people tend to be more consistent when talking about themselves (when describing themselves through verbal statements) that when they solve a task (when behaving). Consistency is computed using the pi* statistic (Hernandez, Rubio, Revuelta, & Santacreu, 2006). According to this procedure, consistency is defined as the value and the dimensionality of the latent trait of an individual (theta) remaining invariant through out the test of. Participants who are consistent must show a constant theta and follow a given response pattern during the entire course of the test. A sample of 3,972 participants was used. Results reveal that 68% of participants showed a consistent response pattern when completing the questionnaire. When tackling the task-based test, the percentage was 66%. 45% of individuals showed a consistent pattern in both tests. Implications for personality and individual differences assessment are discussed.

Sex differences in dynamic spatial ability: the unsolved question of performance factors.

Males and females differ in several cognitive abilities, although the largest gap can be found in spatial ability. Some published studies make the claim that performance factors, which can be either subject- or task-related variables, explain these differences. However, previous studies in which performance factors were measured have focused on static spatial tests. Little is known about the role of performance factors in dynamic spatial tasks. In the present study, we analyzed a sample of 2624 university graduates to test the role of three performance factors (response latency, response frequency, and invested time) derived from the Spatial Orientation Dynamic Test-Revised (SODT-R; Santacreu, 1999). The results showed that males and females appear to cope with the dynamic task in different ways. However, males outperformed females even when the effects of the performance factors were partialed out; that is, the assessed performance factors did not explain much of the sex-related variance. Alternative ways of measuring performance factors will be needed if they are to explain sex differences in dynamic spatial ability.

Fluid intelligence, working memory and executive functioning.

The causes underlying the correlation between working memory and fluid intelligence remain unknown. There are some researchers who argue that the answer can be found on the presumed executive component of working memory. However, the available empirical evidence is far from conclusive. The present study tested a sample of 229 participants. Intelligence, working memory, and executive functioning were measured by one analytic reasoning test (TRASI), a dual task combining a primary task of deductive reasoning with a secondary task of counting, and the Tower of Hanoi task, respectively. All the 3 measures were computer administered. The results indicate that the shared variance between executive functioning and working memory do not account for the relationship between intelligence and working memory. Some theoretical implications are discussed.